Author's note: this is just a little concept one-shot I've written for this roleswap AU I have. Might write a whole story if anybody's interested, but then again... there's other Robots fics I want to write too, so we'll see, I guess. Until then, enjoy this.

Rodney Copperbottom hadn't expected much today when he went to do his usual job at Bigweld Industries, much less when he sat down for today's business meeting – and well, his lack of expectations was met with the usual stuff. Which didn't surprise him since he predicted today's barrage of insults from the new head of the company Ratchet as well as the continued absence of Bigweld. He expected his inventions to be mocked, for his opinions to be met with another threat from Monsieur Shiny, whose ego was larger than the entire building. He expected his past as an outmode to be used against him. Really, he expected nothing new would happen and he was met with nothing new. Same old thing, a different day.

The shiny blue-ish silver robot sighed as he sat in his chair, listening to the corporate shill bot rant on about how outmodes made his metal crawl or whatever. He resisted the urge to remark "you were an outmode too before you got your shiny parts", knowing it'd do him no good and he'd get thrown out of the room like the last time – and lord knew he couldn't afford to have Wonderbot tossed out again, not when it'd been jacked up so badly that day. It had taken the entire night to fix it up. He couldn't let his invention get ruined again, even if he wanted to call out the CEO so badly. So he held himself back, holding Wonderbot close as he tried not to make his disdain too apparent.

Unlike Ratchet, he wasn't a total ass.

However, something soon caught Rodney's attention – or rather, Wonderbot's as the little sentient machine flew out of its creator's hands and towards the window near the office door. It began tapping and pointing at something outside, causing all of the other robots in the room to turn towards it, grabbing their attention.

Rodney quickly stood up in his chair. "Wonderbot, no! Get back here!" he hissed quietly, making gestures for it to come back to his arms. "You know what will happen if—" he stopped once he saw what, or rather who the little machine was pointing at and making a fuss over. From where he was, he could faintly see through the window… an outmoded female around running past guards, on wheels so it seemed. Her hair was down, curled at its ends, her eyes were green, her coat a fine rusted orange, her figure slender and tall – by the gods, she was beautiful. He couldn't help but stare at her for a moment, a small smile appearing on his face—

Until Ratchet took notice of Wonderbot as well.

"Slopperbottom!" the businessman hissed, red eyes filled with irritation and anger. "Get your moronic coffee pot to stop playing around or I'll take it and throw it off the rooftops of this building!"

Rodney's eyes narrowed, his teeth gritting. "Yes, sir," he muttered. He held back curses and the urge to throw his chair at the older business robot, but knew he couldn't. He had to keep in order as best as he could, or else he could kiss this job goodbye alongside the payments for his father's debt and spare parts. Today was the last day spare parts would be in stock too, so he had to get them in time before Monsieur Shiny's orders would be sent out – and how could he get such rare items without enough money? So he held back as much as he could and began to walk over to Wonderbot. "Come on, Wonderbot, that's enough now…"

He held his hands out to grab it, but Wonderbot quickly flew over to the door and opened it, just in time as Rodney grabbed it—

And soon, Rodney found himself crashing into someone and falling back onto the end of the long table, his grip on Wonderbot loosening as it flew out of his hands again, around various fellow employees who were murmuring in excitement, awe, shock, worry and various other emotions. The room was in a buzz was all he could grasp as he shook his head, opening his blue eyes—

Only to find himself staring into the green eyes of the female outmode from earlier. She looked at him in surprise, her mouth in an O shape. Rodney smiled at her nervously, noting she was right on top of him. He felt his cheeks burn up and he let out a small laugh. "Hey…"

Cappy's eyes widened as she realized the position they'd fallen in. "Oh, I'm so sorry!" she apologized quickly, standing up. "I didn't mean to bump into you! Are you alright?"

Rodney brushed himself off as he sat up on the table. "Don't worry, I'm fine," he replied, waving a hand in dismissal. "Really, it's my invention that—"

"Oh great!" Ratchet interrupted, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "Just what we need, more interruptions!" He hopped onto the table, stomping towards the two. "It wasn't enough that Slopperbottom's moronic coffee pot had to ruin the meeting! Oh no, now you just HAD to barge in and…" he trailed off as his eyes landed on Cappy. His eyes widened, his posture tensing and his chest pounding as he saw before him the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. Sure, she was an outmode, but damn, she was gorgeous. Unlike all of the other outmodes, he couldn't take his eyes off her...and he cursed himself for it.

"Oh, hello there. What's a lovely lady like you doing inside Bigweld Industries?" Ratchet's tone shifted, reverting to a flirty type as a grin broke out on his face. It caught nearly everyone in the room off guard, especially Rodney and Cappy, the former of which whose eyes narrowed and the latter of which only blinked.

"Sir, my name is Cappy and I'm an outmode," the female robot began slowly. "And I come here to ask for your help. You see, my friend Fender and other fellow outmodes are being forced into terrible ultimatums: the chop shop or upgrades. This issue can easily be solved if they are just granted some more spare parts—"

"Oh Cappy, my dear," said Ratchet as he came close to the outmode, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her close towards him. "I'm afraid you've missed the news." He shook his head as he chuckled. "We're no longer making spare parts. However, fear not: I can offer you and your friends free upgrades!"

Rodney raised an eyebrow, biting back a growl as he knew what the business robot was up to. He was trying to seduce the outmoded girl, make her his. It made Copperbottom's fists ball up with rage building inside, alongside a strange pain in his chest. Somehow, the thought of her in the boss's arms…it made him feel awful.

"That's a kind offer, but we don't need any upgrades," Cappy said politely, wincing a bit at the arm wrapped around her. "Besides, surely it can't be free…"

"Oh but I insist," Ratchet said, getting even closer. "And it is free, only if you give me one thing in return."

Cappy felt herself tense up. "And what's that?"

"Head out with me to a fancy restaurant and let me show you my casual, fun-loving side," Ratchet purred out the answer.

Everyone's jaws nearly dropped. Cappy looked at him incredulously. "What?"

Rodney let out a grunt in frustration and quickly ran over, shoving aside his superior without a care for the fact it would risk his job. "Alright, that's enough now!" he shouted.

Ratchet glared. "Excuse me, but I was offering the lady a night out—"

"All I ask for is some help," Cappy interrupted, trying to remain polite. "If you can't offer me any help without unnecessary upgrades, then I'll be leaving." She turned around, feeling a pang inside her chest. She wondered where Bigweld was… he would've done something. "I'll seek out Bigweld instead."

"Bigweld's not in charge anymore," the new head of the company said, walking towards the outmoded female. "I am. But don't worry, what I offer you is more valuable than his lies of 'you can shine no matter what.' I mean, look where that got him." He gestured to Rodney and his invention. "All he's got is a sentient hunk of junk and a stack of bills to pay."

Rodney glared back. "At least it's better than that massive ego."

Cappy giggled at this, but then froze as Ratchet's gaze shifted to her again. "My offer still stands: free upgrades and a night you won't forget, or you can miss out on good opportunities by hanging around scrap metal. Your choice." He flashed a grin at her.

"I'll stick with scrap metal," she replied, eyes narrowing before she left the room in a huff, shoving aside a guard who'd entered to check on things.

Rodney watched as the outmoded female left, before he let out a soft sigh. He had to find Cappy once it was afternoon, so he could talk to her properly. She intrigued him a lot.

And he wasn't the only robot intrigued by the outmode, for Ratchet's attention had been caught by Cappy as well. And from that moment on, he vowed he'd find a way to seduce her to his side, so the outmodes would not only be down on one of their fellow bots, but also so he could replace the rival he despised so much, who tried to steal the lady's attention from him.